1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention generally pertains to dental implants and more specifically to a method of installing them.
2. Description of Related Art
Various dental implant methods and devices have been developed for replacing one or more missing teeth in a person's jaw with prosthetic teeth. For many prosthetic teeth, a final product comprises three basic components: an implant, an abutment, and a crown. The crown is the exposed portion of the prosthesis that resembles one or more teeth. The implant is an anchor that becomes attached to the jawbone, and the abutment couples the crown to the implant.
Typical implant methods involve a series of procedures extending over several months. In some cases, for instance, the process involves first, cutting the gum tissue in the area of the missing tooth and pulling the tissue back to expose the jawbone; second, drilling a hole into the bone; third, installing an anchoring member or implant into the hole; fourth, attaching a cover screw to the implant and stitching the gum tissue back together; fifth, waiting up to several months to allow the gum tissue to heal over the cover screw and to allow the bone to grow onto the implant; sixth, cutting a small round hole in the gum tissue to remove the cover screw and expose the implant; seventh, attaching a healing cap to the implant; waiting another extended period to allow the gum tissue to heal around the healing cap; eighth, replacing the healing cap with an abutment; and ninth, attaching a crown (e.g., an individual prosthetic tooth, bridge, denture, etc.) to the abutment.
An implant process can be improved with the aid of drill guide bushings and tomography as disclosed in PCT Publication WO 99/26540 by Klein et al. (specifically incorporated by reference herein). The Klein method involves taking a CT scan (computed tomography scan) of a patient wearing a surgical template that overlays the patient's teeth. The surgical template preferably has three fiducial markers that are detected by the CT scan. After taking the tomographical scan, the surgical template is removed from the patient's mouth and placed over a model of the patient's jaw. The model jaw with the surgical template is loaded onto a computer-driven milling machine. With the aid of the CT scan data and the three fiducial markers, the milling machine accurately drills a hole into the surgical template. The template, now with an accurately drilled hole, is returned to the patient's mouth, so the hole in the template can then be used as a drill guide when drilling into the patient's actual jawbone. Drawbacks of such a method include its overall complexity and the expense of the computer-driven milling machine.
Another implant method and related device is disclosed by Fenick in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,015,183 and 5,133,660, which are specifically incorporated by reference herein. Fenick uses X-rays to help identify a drill bit trajectory and uses drill guide bushings to help guide the drill bit. The Fenick system creates a radiology stent that includes a radially opaque grid. The stent, without any drill bushings, is X-rayed while in the patient's mouth. The stent is then placed over a model of the patient's jaw where the grid provides a frame of reference that helps in manually positioning a drill bit relative to the model jaw. A hole is drilled into the model, and the resulting hole helps align a drill bushing relative to the model. Next, a cast is created over the model to capture the drill bushing. The cast, with the drill bushing, is then placed in the patient's mouth to help guide the drill bit that drills a hole into the patient's jawbone. With the Fenick system, some positional accuracy may be sacrificed because the drill bushing is aligned to a model rather than being aligned directly to the patient's actual jaw.
Various other examples of dental implant methods and devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,283,753; 5,718,579; 5,613,852; 5,064,374; 5,015,186; RE37,646; 3,748,739; 5,350,297; 6,488,502; 4,998,881; all of which are specifically incorporated by reference herein. Additional examples of dental implant methods and devices are disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2002/0182567 and European Patent Application 0437031A1; both of which are specifically incorporated by reference herein.